That isn’t what Clarkson thought at first. Clarkson wrote on the trio’s website, DriveTribe, that he was in the area when the crash happened. He said Hammond went for another run along the Hemburg Hill Climb in the Rimac, both of which which Clarkson said his co-host knew well.

But Clarkson arrived at the scene “to see an inferno raging” where Hammond had crashed. There was a lot of confusion about whether Hammond was OK, and frankly, it all sounds terrifying. Here’s part of how he described it:

It was obvious from the skid marks what had happened. He’d lost it somehow on the final bend after the finishing line and had plummeted down one bank onto a road lower down the hill, which had caused his car to flip.

The big question was: had he managed to get out. No-one knew.

Clarkson said he doesn’t know what went wrong in the crash, and that hopefully Hammond will say when he’s out of surgery. But, until then, read Clarkson’s full recount of what went on from his point of view on DriveTribe. It’s the kind of terrifying situation none of us should ever wish upon someone else.